The procedure
Bone marrow transplantation involves the following steps:
- Finding a suitable donor: Bone marrow is an organ, and any organ that is transplanted carries the risk of rejection, but consider this: When an organ is rejected, it is the immunity of the body that refuses its presence and considers it a foreigner, but what if the immunity itself is transplanted and considers the whole body a foreigner? This is the case in bone marrow transplantation, and that’s why many tests are carried out to ensure the suitability of the donor. The perfect donor is always the same person or an identical twin, followed by a first-degree relative.
- Conditioning: This process involves different steps of preparing the body to receive the bone marrow, the present marrow is ablated using chemotherapy and radiotherapy, to make space for the new marrow.
- Infusion: Infusion of the new marrow is carried out through a central venous catheter -in the neck veins for example- over a period of one hour or more.
After the previous procedures, the body becomes severely immunodeficient “the neutropenic phase,” since the bone marrow transplanted needs time to develop immunity after the destruction of the old one. During this period, the patient undergoes isolation to protect him from catching any infection, and antibiotics and antifungals are given even without an identifiable infection. After about 4 weeks, symptoms of immunodeficiency subside and the patient is put under observation until discharge.